Hot Italian

Ben and I went to Hot Italian in Downtown Sacramento for a spontaneous brunch on Saturday.  We had a pizza (Materazzi) with pepperoni, olives, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fontina cheese and a brunch sandwich with scrambled eggs, fontina cheese, caramelized onions, fennel sausage, and mozzarella cheese.  They were delicious and we didn't eat until 2:30 pm so I was starving.

Hot Italian for brunch was perfect because there wasn't the club vibe that comes with dining after all the business people get out of work.  I wanted to order gelato too, but I was already embarrassed about how much food I had eaten, so I'll have to go back for gelato sometime.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing laundry, watching Law and Order, buying shorts at Forever 21, and then supporting Little E by going to the UC Davis Women's Gymnastics meet, where the Aggies won their conference!

In other food news, I had a really bad bowl of pasta the other day.  It was a penne pasta with a sauce that tasted like half-tomato paste and half-sriracha.  Gross.  I didn't know it was possible to mess up penne pasta.

Pink and Purple

I accidentally coordinated my running outfit a little too well on Monday.  I matched my blog!  In case you can't tell, I'm wearing one pink and one purple sock.   I actually have all the necessary articles of clothing for a completely pink running outfit, but I haven't had all those things clean at the same time for awhile.  

In other pink news, here's further proof that pink is a magical color:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dqJRyk0YM&feature=player_embedded 

Biscuit Poisoning

I think the lard equilibrium of my bloodstream has been altered since I moved away from the South.  I remember I used to be able to consume an occasional Bojangles or Chic-fil-A chicken biscuit, but I don't know if I'm capable anymore.

Last weekend I went to brunch at The Porch with Erin, Samantha, and Ben.  I had very high hopes for The Porch because it's related to Capitol Garage, which is definitely a favorite location of mine, and because the menu had a large menu with brunch foods that had not been previously available to me in California.  Maybe The Porch is still figuring out a few kinks in the kitchen (and not just the menu spelling), but a part of me wished I had gone to the Shady Lady instead.

Location: The Porch

Drinks Score: 8
Food Score: 6

Food we ate:  Grilled Brie, Biscuit Sandwich, Banana Bread French Toast, Soft Shell Crab Sandwich, Grown Up Grilled Cheese

Drinks we drank: Orange juice, Mimosa, The Charleston

It is my opinion that The Porch took the concept of a Southern Brunch to the extreme.  I'm pretty sure the biscuit on my biscuit sandwich was deep fried and/or supersaturated with grease.  And I don't think it was necessary for everything on the menu to come with hollandaise or cfreme fraiche.  The french fries were really good though, as was the grilled brie.

The quality of the bacon carried the rest of the food at The Porch.  I was so distracted by the outstanding bacon that I found myself grabbing the bacon off of Ben's sandwich without even asking.

We redeemed (in my opinion) the brunch with a trip to Broadacre for coffee.  Erin and I walked around Downtown Sacramento for the rest of the morning gossiping daydreaming putting a dent in her photography project and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Burgers

Samantha and I ate at Counter Burger a few weeks ago, and I'm going to go ahead and call it brunch because 1) it was before 11:00 am and 2) something interesting happened (i.e. horseradish mayo).

Introduction
Location: Counter Burger
Food score: 8
Drink score: We had water and Coke, so..... I don't really know what to say for this one.

Materials and Methods
We ate: Burgers, Onion straws, Fries.
We drank: Water and Coke

Results and Discussion
My burger toppings included a honey wheat bun, swiss cheese, gruyere cheese, pickles, mixed greens, bacon, and horseradish mayonaise, which I'm convinced that out of the ca. 20 spreads that Counter Burger offers, is the best spread.  Note this is a claim my Nana would respectfully disagree with, because she likes honey mustard better.   One piece of advice I might suggest for the Counter Burger patron is to eat the burger as fast as possible, because Samantha and I both noticed that the buns on the second halves of our burgers got too soggy. A solution might be to de-bun the second half of the burger until it's ready to be eaten.

Omg, this brunch review is reading like a lab report (edit: I included headings in small font, because I figured this was an all or nothing writing style).

For fun, a list of my favorite burgers in California:

1. Burgers and Brew Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburger - the one in Sacramento, not Davis
2. Barney's Bacon Cheeseburger (with curly fries and a Turkish coffee milkshake) in Berkeley, CA
3. Counter Burger - anything with two kinds of cheese
4. Sam's Mediterranean Cafe Cheeseburger with yogurt sauce (with the best fries in Davis!) in Davis, CA
5. Kupros Cheeseburger in Midtown Sacramento


What's your favorite burger?